Hannah More Academy Chapel, Baltimore County

The light the other evening was just beautiful. It's that "golden hour" added to some wonderful clouds. So I thought it would be perfect to take some photographs, and remembering how similar the chapel at Hannah More Academy was to Christ Church in Owensville, Anne Arundel County. 

The chapel, which is also known as St. Michael's Church, is located on the grounds of the former Hannah More Academy in Reisterstown. Hannah More was the first Episcopal boarding school for girls in the United States. However, the church was separate from the school for many years. 

When a new church was built in the nearby Reisterstown, the attendance at St. Michael's declined, and the church was de-consecrated in 1908. But in 1928, a petition to re-open the church for use by the students was forwarded to the diocese and the church was renovated and re-opened.

By the 1960's, enrollment was starting to wane and in the 1970's, the students and the school's charter were transferred to St. Timothy's, another girls' boarding school. The chapel was de-consecrated in 1978.

It remains an excellent example of mid-19th century Gothic Revival architecture. As with Christ Church, the design is characteristic of English architect, Richard Upjohn. It is easy to see the similarities.

Link to Medusa.

Trinity Church, St. Mary's City

I knew the visit to the Trinity Church in St. Mary's City would be one of the harder ones. I went to school at St. Mary's sometime last century and left after the suicide of one of my closest friends.

I had returned a few times after the Governor's Cup, a yacht race which started on Friday evening off of Annapolis, and finished sometime on Saturday at Church Point at St. Mary's.

Trinity Church didn't play a huge role in my life at SMC, but I was aware of it, and certainly knew Church Point,

which we always used as a starting and finish line for regattas, and the Garden of Remembrance adjacent to the Church's graveyard, where you could get a birds' eye view of the racing.

The first church on this site dates to the 1676, when St. Mary's was the capital of the state of Maryland. When it moved to Annapolis in 1694, the former state house building was used for the church.  

In 1829, construction on the present Trinity Church was begun, and the old State House, now beyond repair, was dismantled and the bricks used to build the present church. The old State House had been a church for 134 years, as compared to the 18 years it served the Province. 

St. Mary's College of Maryland is a public, liberal arts college in St. Mary's City, Maryland.

Established in 1840, St. Mary's College of Maryland is an honors college that claims to "offer an experience similar to that of an elite liberal arts college."

Sadly, because of the pandemic, I couldn't get inside the church. I actually didn't stay there too long as the ghosts from my past were too prevalent and along with the disruptions and the loss of our way of life as we knew it, it was all just too sad to bear.

Link to Medusa.

P.S. I had forgotten about this poem, written by Lucille Clifton, the Poet Laureate of St. Mary's. It was written to send off the sailing team, of which I used to be captain, and I think it's so appropriate now.